Managing large businesses may involve storing, aggregating, and analyzing large amounts of data. Many organizations use Enterprise Software Systems to manage almost every form of business data. For example, Enterprise Software Systems can provide business-oriented tools such as online shopping and online payment processing, interactive product catalogs, automated billing systems, security, enterprise content management, IT service management, customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, business intelligence, project management, collaboration, human resource management, manufacturing, enterprise application integration, and Enterprise forms automation.
Many modern software systems operate in environments with very high usage, often serving millions of users simultaneously. Many of these environments may be utilized by customers across the globe. As bugs are discovered and as new products and services are offered, each environment may include applications that require update operations to be processed on a regular—even daily—basis. This can involve updating software modules, replacing software modules, and bouncing (turning off and on) servers. Because of the frequency of the update process, along with the complexity of coordinating patches with the correct applications, operating environments, and backup routines, this constant update process is fraught with errors and inefficiencies.